The Oregon Beach Monitoring Program (OBMP) has announced their list of sites and beaches for the 2017 sampling season and are open for public comment and feedback on the various beach monitoring sites – see press release here. OBMP works with the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to determine beaches that need monitoring for the public’s health at recreational areas along our coast. Beaches are selected based on criteria that include: pollution hazards present, previous monitoring data and test results, type and amount of beach use and public input. Surfrider Foundation Chapters in Oregon were a huge part of advocating for the establishment of this program both at the state and federal level, cause who wants to get sick at the beach!

Also new in 2017 are new Beach Action Values (BAV). The BAV represents the level of bacteria measured that triggers a public health advisory. That number is dropping to a more conservative number, good news for public health but you may expect to see more advisories than in the past.

As part of an adaptive sampling plan, beaches and sampling locations are re-evaluated every other year to ensure available resources best protect public health. If you’ve been following our federal efforts over the past 5 years, you understand that these resources are constantly under threat! Go here to learn more about that and how you can help Restore the BEACH ACT! This constant funding threat and the limitation of resources for OBMP is yet another reason why our Surfrider Chapters partner to sample many of these beaches year round through our Blue Water Task Force Program.

The proposed list of re-evaluated locations is listed below (click on each beach to see the multiple sites monitored at each beach). To view monitoring sites from the 2016 season, please visit OMBP’s Beaches We Monitor webpage.